Customers have an increasing selection of sources for information, entertainment, and communication services. These sources offer a variety of data formats carried over many types of media, including twisted pair, coaxial cable, fiber, radio waves, and the like. Customer premises that were once wired for at most two formats, standard telephone and cable TV, are now often rewired to accommodate new data formats and media.
An example is a customer wired for traditional point-to-multipoint broadband reception, commonly known as cable TV. Such a customer typically has coaxial cable running from a network connection point to locations where analog receivers may be located. When high speed digital data, such as provided by VDSL, becomes available, the customer premises must be wired with additional cabling. Typically, twisted pair is run from the network connection point to a gateway. The gateway converts digital signals into a format acceptable to one or more receivers within the customer premises. A principle factor in the cost of adding a service such as VDSL is the installment of new wiring to the gateway and from the gateway to receivers.
What is needed is to efficiently route analog and digital signals within customer premises. As much as possible, the existing cabling should be used. Any reuse of existing cabling should not require modifications to network interface devices or gateways. Also, cable reuse should be simple so as to keep digital service installation costs to a minimum.